Thursday, November 1, 2018

Kwik Sew 4162

After months of
radio silence – I’m back.I won’t go
into long explanations.Let’s just say
that I needed a break from life.I meant
to start back to blogging in September.That
didn’t happen.October.Didn’t happen.Then I saw Faye’s
post about blogging every day, and today is November 1st, and
somehow that really put the firecracker under me to get going.Now don’t expect miracles around here.“Every day” is highly unlikely.Even though quite a lot of sewing happened in
the interim, there are the pictures to get caught up on.The weather is so lousy these days, I’m
beginning to forget what sun looks like, so I’ll be playing around with taking
pictures in less than stellar conditions.Once again – don’t expect miracles.I’m trying to get over my perfection streak, and I’ll just have to live
with less-than-perfect pictures, so long as they pretty well show what’s
what.So without much further ado…

When Joyce was
closing up the sewing shop in March, you can imagine the prices on everything
were just too good to be true, and despite trying to refrain from cluttering up
the pattern drawers at home, quite a few Kwik Sew patterns did come home with
me – mostly jackets, if I remember correctly.This one isn’t exactly “my thing” going by the pictures on the
envelope.On the other hand, it’s a
simple cardigan jacket for wovens, with bust darts on the front (I disappeared
said darts, because I don’t need them) and darts in the back and just enough
shaping that the whole thing doesn’t hang like a box.

I used a suedey (is
that a word?) knit – much too soft for a jacket, so I fused knit interfacing to
every piece.

I added a pocket, because
how often do I say - “What idiot didn’t put pockets in this jacket?”Oh, and I had this one metal zipper with the
cutest pull tab, and it needed a place to go.Too bad I didn’t have two matching zippers, but … one pocket is better
than none.

I made one crucial
mistake.I fused the interfacing to all
the pieces once they were cut.My fabric
shrunk lengthwise.Should have block
fused before cutting, and then there would have been less cutting, but … I didn’t.Live and learn.I ended up having to add a facing to the hem
to get the correct length of jacket.The
sleeves became “bracelet length”.No big
deal, but aggravating nonetheless.

Sorry - fuzzy picture

I also added a
lining.Didn’t want to look at fused-on-knit-interfacing
and it certainly helps with getting the jacket on and off.

Just for the record –
this jacket was actually sewn in the late Spring.We had cold weather for so long (before it
became unbearably hot and humid) I just couldn’t switch over to summer sewing.I popped in shoulder pads that were just a
tad too thick, just because they were pre-made and I was being lazy.Then (finally) came the hot summer and this
jacket just hung and hung, waiting for me to replace the shoulder pads.This week I finally succumbed – made some ¼ inch
pads and … I have a wearable jacket.

We’ll see how this
fabric performs.A few years back, I
made a t-shirt dress out of the same fabric (slightly different colour brown).After a few washes, it became far too limp to
wear as a dress.The snakeskin print has
all but washed out.I cut it down to a
tunic.It might even get cut down
further to a t-shirt.It’s wearable, but…This jacket is certainly not going to get
washed, so we’ll see for just how long the fabric will look presentable.

I'm glad you're back too! Though I love that sewing went on in the interim and I knew you were around because of the comments you left on my blog. Can I say that I miss shoulder pads and to see you add them to your jacket brought joy to my sewing heart. Will be waiting on photos of future makes!

Thanks Carolyn! I was going to skip the shoulder pads altogether, but the shoulders just didn't sit quite right. Funny how tiny little shoulder pads just make the shoulders sit more smartly and the whole jacket looks better.